


Rebound Soulbound

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: Soulmate Dreams [27]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Dragging Viktor, M/M, Post-Breakup Awkwardness, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 05:36:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11075115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Soulmate dreams are supposed to be awesome.  It's kind of awkward, though, when you see the boyfriend you broke up with a couple months ago.





	Rebound Soulbound

**Author's Note:**

> Part of this is canon: the conversation Chris and Paul had about being friends after their breakup happened, and by the next time we see them together, they'll be okay with each other again. In canon, they are not soulmates, but I just had to write the AU where they were. :D
> 
> Paul Chen is an OC created for this 'verse. He's an American skater training under Celestino Cialdini. He and Chris met in Juniors and started dating around the time of Junior Worlds when they were both seventeen. They broke up at the Trophee Eric Bompard after they'd started having trouble because Paul felt threatened by Chris's close friendships with Viktor and Yuuri.

This phone call wasn’t going to be awkward at all. Of course not. Why would it be awkward?

Celestino wouldn’t let Paul just lay around feeling sorry for himself. Nationals started in three days. Four Continents wasn’t long after that. Paul forced himself up and set to work getting ready for practice.

Waiting honestly wouldn’t be too bad. It was not quite a month until his soulmate turned eighteen, he’d be busy and not thinking too much about it, there’d be no accusations of making it up or lying or needing to move on already. The more Paul thought about it, the better waiting sounded.

 

Christophe _hated_ having to admit he was wrong. He hadn’t done anything wrong with Paul. When he and Paul got together, they both said it was a temporary fling, a chance to have some fun before meeting their soulmates. Paul was the one who started getting clingy and jealous and needy, and when Chris called him on it, Paul was the one who said they were through.

Paul was also the one waiting for him at the beach he was dreaming of.

The breakup hadn’t really hurt that much. It upset Chris, but Paul had been genuinely hurt by it, something Chris hadn’t truly realized until he and Paul saw each other at the Grand Prix Finals. For the first two days, Paul had completely avoided him. He wasn’t sure whether Yuuri had reached out to Paul or Paul had reached out to Yuuri, but whatever had happened, Paul had started joining them when the group was big enough. Their last day there, Paul had asked to speak with him alone.

“I’m sorry for how things ended between us. I’m not asking for a second chance, there’s not much point, either it would end up the same way or it would end in a month and a half when I turn eighteen, but I am asking if we can try to be friends. I don’t know that I’m ready to deal with Viktor yet, but I don’t want to lose Yuuri or Phichit or put them in awkward situations where they have to choose.”

Chris crossed his arms. “What’s wrong with Viktor?”

"Nothing!" Paul held up his hands. “I just don’t want to hear whatever he has to say about waiting for your soulmate and not messing around with other people. Not yet, anyway. I know Yuuri feels the same way, but he’s not all sanctimonious about it.”

“Oh, okay, that's fair." Being Viktor's best friend and the one broken up with hadn't spared Chris from Viktor's told-you-so lectures. He could definitely sympathize with Paul's desire to avoid those for a while. "Sure. If you want to try being friends, let’s be friends.”

He'd really missed Paul. Texting and sharing pictures and making fun of Russian idiots had been easy to fall back into, although there were some weird moments. It was clear that Paul hadn't really gotten over him yet, although he was working on it and did his best to not make Chris feel bad. The distance helped as they trained for their next competitions. Paul was still adorable, and Chris still wanted to kiss him, but he’d accepted that it was over and he’d just have to wait for his soulmate.

The universe has a very strange sense of humor sometimes.

 

“Why the hell didn’t you call me last month?” were the first words out of Chris’s mouth on his birthday.

Paul just laughed at him. “Take two minutes and think about it. Let me know when you’ve figured it out.” Then the bastard hung up.

Chris called back right away. “You know this lack of communication thing is not good for a healthy relationship, don’t you?” If Paul had just talked to him about the feelings he'd been developing, instead of hiding and lashing out, at the very least the breakup would have been a lot less awkward, and possibly not have happened. Then they could have just transitioned straight from fooling around to being soulmates without this awkward stage in between.

“Yes, but this is one you really should be able to figure out on your own. Figuring out that I was falling for you, well… I handled that horribly and expecting you to figure out why I was so jealous of you spending time with Viktor and Yuuri was only slightly more ridiculous than the jealousy itself.”

Chris sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I probably could, but can you just… tell me? Consider it practice for talking about our feelings in the future.”

“Okay, fine. I didn’t call you last month because I figured this conversation was going to be awkward enough anyway without the possibility of you accusing me of lying to get you back. I don't know if you'd have done that, but can you really say the thought wouldn't have crossed your mind? Between Nationals and Four Continents I’ve been so busy anyway that it’s not like we missed out on just a whole lot.”

Chris was going to protest that he wouldn’t have done that, but… really, he couldn’t. Paul was right, it would at least have crossed his mind, and poisoned the rest of the conversation. “Okay. Do you have any competitions between now and Worlds?”

“Nope, you?”

“No. Josef said I could take a couple weeks if I needed them. I don’t think he’s going to believe me when I tell him I’m going to Detroit.” 

“But you are coming?”

“Yes. We need to talk about some things, but… I’ve missed you.”

“Same. Let me know once you’ve figured out flights.”

“Yeah." Chris was about to hang up when something occurred to him. "Oh. Hey. Since I’m going to be busy with traveling… you should call Viktor and Yuuri and tell them.”

“Why me?”

“Because don’t you want to hear what Viktor has to say about us dating before?”

“I already… wait.” Paul cracked up. “Save yourself for your soulmate is kind of a pointless lecture when we did!”


End file.
